1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to safety devices for sliding and swinging doors. In particular, the present invention provides a gravity actuated apparatus for protecting fingers and tails of pets from being accidentally pinched between a door and a door frame.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are two basic types of doors: sliding and swinging. Both types of doors can pinch fingers and pets' tails if they are closed without adequate caution. Most doors have handles that are too high for children to reach, so they often grab the door by the leading edge of the frame in order to close it. Pulling the door closed in this manner puts the child's fingers in danger. Often when a pet sees a door closing they will race to get inside or outside before the door closes. This race often ends with the pet's tail caught between the door and the door frame. Such mishaps can be quite painful and can cause permanent damage.
Today's sliding glass doors can be especially dangerous, since many are quite heavy, having double paned windows and sliding very smoothly on low-friction tracks. Once these doors have begun to slide shut, it is often very difficult to stop them. To a hand or tail caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, the closing of one of these doors can be the equivalent of a guillotine.
To prevent accidents such as these, a safety device is required to stop the door from closing all the way. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,553 to Salerno provides such a device. The invention comprises a support housing attached to a sliding door frame. The support housing pivotally supports a resilient body. When the door is in an open position, a gravitational force acting on the body moves the body into a position between the leading edge of the door and the frame. In this position, the body prevents the door from closing completely. The body is manually movable away from the door and frame so that the door may be closed. When released with the door closed, the body is positioned by gravitational force in abutment with the leading surface of the door. When the door is again opened, gravity moves the resilient body back into a position between the leading edge of the sliding door and the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,453 to Lovelace provides another safety device for sliding doors. The device comprises a mounting bracket for positioning the device at the border between the door frame and the leading edge of the sliding door. The mounting bracket supports a spring-loaded plunger that is movable in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the door. In a first position, the plunger does not interfere with the closing of the sliding door. The spring, however, biases the plunger toward a second position wherein the plunger blocks the path of the sliding door, preventing its closure. In order to close the door an operator must manually hold the plunger in the first position while closing the door. Once the door is closed the plunger is released and rests against the leading edge of the closed sliding door. When the door is opened, the spring automatically moves the plunger to the second position wherein it again blocks the path of the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,434 to Jarnot provides a door closing preventer for swinging doors. The device comprises a freely hanging chain mounted at one end to a surface of the door frame. Attached to the free end of the chain is a resilient cigar-shaped bumper. The chain is positioned such that when the door is open, a portion of the bumper interferes with the closing of the door by blocking the path of the leading edge of the door. The bumper becomes pinched between the leading edge of the closing door and the door frame. In order to close the door, an operator must manually hold the bumper away from the door while closing the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,279 to Radcliff provides a door latch holder configured for use with a typical swinging door having one knob or handle on each side of the door. The door latch holder comprises a body configured to rest over the door latch, the body including a pair of loop-like strap attachments, each strap depending from opposite ends of the body. To install the door latch holder, one loop is wrapped around each door knob such that the intermediate body rests over the door latch and forces the latch into a retracted position. In this position, the door latch does not interfere with the opening or closing of the door. Thus, this device is not intended to prevent injuries caused by slamming doors. Rather, with this door latch holder properly installed, the door may be opened and closed without turning the knob.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,631 to Schjoneman provides a door stop for use with typical swinging doors. The door stop comprises a flexible rubber-like member shaped substantially as a flat dumbbell. Both enlarged ends of the door stop include a hole configured to fit about the opposed knobs or handles of a door. When properly installed, a thin strip connecting the two bulbous ends wraps around the leading edge of the door and prevents closure of the door.
While each of the devices just described is effective for its intended purpose, none of the devices are very easy to operate. The Schjoneman device, for example, can be very difficult to mount and dismount from the door knob. And the Jarnot, Lovelace and Salerno devices can be difficult, if not impossible, to manipulate from the side of the door opposite the device. With the Salerno device, for example, if the operator is not standing on the side of the door on which the device is mounted, he must reach between the frame and leading edge of the door in order to hold the device out of the way as he closes the door. Ironically, then, the Salerno device actually increases the likelihood that an operator will pinch his or her fingers between the sliding door and door frame.
Another type of device currently available for swinging doors comprises a wedge positioned on the door hinge, thereby preventing the door from closing by providing an obstruction between the hinged edge of the door and the door frame. In order to close the door, the wedge must be removed. Upon re-opening the door, the wedge must be manually repositioned on the hinge in order to reestablish the safety provided by the device. This procedure can be easily forgotten, making the door even more dangerous because the safety measure is assumed to be in place when, in fact, it is not.
Therefore, a device that prevents the full closing of sliding and swinging doors, that automatically deploys when the door is opened, such that an operator need not manually install the device, that is easily operable regardless of which side of the door the operator stands, and that is inexpensive to manufacture and costs consumers little to purchase or install, would be of great benefit in preventing injury to fingers, especially children's fingers, and pets' tails.